Milan Cortina Olympic hopefuls including returning gold medalists visited TODAY on Wednesday to mark 100 days out from the Games in Italy.
Olympic champions such as figure skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates, hockey player Hilary Knight, speed skater Erin Jackson, snowboarders Red Gerard and Nick Baumgartner and freeskier Alex Hall offered their thoughts on the upcoming Winter Games.
“One hundred days out feels like a really significant milestone,” said Bates, who is bidding to be the first U.S. figure skater to compete in five Olympics. “It’s right around the corner. One hundred days is going to go by like that.”
Chock and Bates were joined on set by reigning world champion Alysa Liu and two-time Olympian Jason Brown. Amber Glenn, the two-time reigning U.S. champion, also spoke about her preparation.
Unlike some other sports, no U.S. figure skaters have qualified for Milan Cortina yet. The team will be named after the Prevagen U.S. Championships in January: three entries each in women’s singles, men’s singles and ice dance, plus two pairs.
Glenn, who turned 26 on Tuesday, could be the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater in 98 years, and an Olympic rookie at that.
“It would be a dream come true,” she said. “Every little girl in skating dreams of being at the Olympics. It wasn’t really a reality for me for so many years, and now it is.”
Of the group at TODAY on Wednesday, Gerard, Hall and moguls skier Jaelin Kauf already made the Milan Cortina team.
Gerard, one of eight siblings, memorably won Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games with his family celebrating at the bottom of the course.
“It’ll be sweet to have them back in Milan to be a rowdy crew event,” he said.
In speed skating, Jackson endured a series of health challenges since 2022, when she became the first Black woman to win individual Winter Olympic gold for the U.S.
She still managed to win the last two World Cup season titles in the 500m, her Olympic gold medal event.
“Having that extra pressure as the reigning champion is really going to help me step up my game,” she said.
